I would just like to add two pics that say more than 1000 words – excited physicists watching the laser cutter doing its work, and the waste disposal when the work was finally finished around midnight. We love HappyLab!

I’m sure you all know that feeling of „flow“ when work fades into play and time just flies away. I just had such a rare moment: Next to me there’s a computer-driven laser cutter. The original is pretty expensive, but this is the much cheaper Chinese version – just as cool, but the door doesn’t fully close and the software sucks. But hey: It’s a 50 watt laser. The task is to cut some medals for you guys. But hey, since I got my new laptop with me I had to engrave my name. Kind of strange, putting my Thinkpad under a laser that could easily cut through.
Tomorrow this machine will be at the science afternoon. And I’m sure the guys of HappyLab are cool enough to let you engrave your name on just about anything. Guarantee voided for sure if you cut through your iPhone – but hey, who cares 😀

Visitor from Iran: “Can you say some words, why do we all meet here?”
IYPT President: “For coffee.”
Visitor from Iran: “No, here in Vienna, why do we meet?”
IYPT President: “Because they have very good coffee in Vienna!”

It took us several hours yesterday evening to compile the jury for the fifth Selective PF. After we were finished, we were exhausted and decided to go to sleep, and type it into the computer on the next day.

When we came to the office this morning, somebody had erased the blackboard!

After a moment of shock that several hours of work might have been lost, we realized that fortunately we were smart enough to take a photo of the blackboard before leaving last night. So, no harm done!

Still, I wonder what the one who erased the blackboard was thinking. In my opinion it was quite obvious that the information on it was very important.

Ok, so the results for round 3 and the previews for round 4 are available now. And I heard something about another fire alarm at our hotel. Someone’s towel wet again? I mean, come on, are you still doing experiments on problem 12 or what?
Well, I’m glad that I still have to work at our office and my ears didn’t get hurt again.
update: I added Florian’s picture.

The good news: I’m awake again and I received new pictures and I’m adding them to day 1 & 2 right now.
The bad: Compiling and publishing the results didn’t work as smoothly as I had in mind. Groups with 4 teams naturally take much longer, so we worked until 2:30 pm on the results and previews. And having 300 people waiting makes you want to do this fast. Doing complicated tasks fast after a night without much sleep (thanks again to whoever triggered the fire alarm last night!) leads to errors. I’m sorry…
Well, now everything seams to be ok, at least no one’s complaining any more.
Oh, and constantly changing the juror’s schedule doesn’t help much either by the way… Now that PF3 is almost over, we finally have the schedule for PF3 online.
So I decided that for this PF I’ll take my time, double check everything and try not to make any errors. So it’ll take longer this time. Sorry. Please don’t drive anyone crazy. You’ll be much happier with correct results and previews half an hour later if they’re correct…
So just watch the football finals while waiting…

In the break between the Opening Ceremony and the first fight, I was asked to accompamy Mr Schreck on a tour to the ferris wheel. I was very pleased to do so and together with Wolfgang Resch, we spent a nice “2 hours’ holiday”, as Mr Schreck called it, in the Prater. After the ride, we had some ice cream while walking through the Prater.
When the first fight started, it was almost time for Mr Schreck to leave, but at least he was able to watch Austria’s first report before we rushed to the airport.

update by tim: I’ve just uploaded some more pictures of this tour to the ferris wheel to our gallery.